Shinde has a life beyond Patna: Khurshid on HM at music launch

Shinde has a life beyond Patna: Khurshid on HM at music launch

Dismissing Bharatiya Janata Party criticism on the Union home minister attending a Bollywood music launch hours after serial blasts in Patna, External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid has said Sushilkumar Shinde "has a life beyond Patna".

Khurshid also criticised Bharatiya Janata Party's prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi for going ahead with the Patna rally despite the blasts, saying, "After an event like this happens, you should give up whatever happens."

Defending Shinde for attending the music release of a film just hours after the blast, Khurshid said, "Shinde has a life beyond Patna....and the awful thing that happened."

"The law and order was the responsibility of the state government and if the state government was to ask Shinde or the home ministry to take over something, he would be there on the phone," he said.

Criticising Modi for going ahead with the rally, the external affairs minister said, "May I ask was the rally suspended? You criticised Shinde for carrying on with life as usual but nobody has asked questions that nothing happened to Modi, he went on with his speech, not a word about the people who died, because it was not in the script or was it in the script that we had not seen?"

He slammed Modi, saying that instead of attending to those injured in the blasts he went ahead with the rally.

"Should you not attend to people who were hurt? Should you not try to find out what has happened? He continued with his speech ....much worse....much worse," he said.

Khurshid also took on Modi for criticising the Congress party on the issue of dynasty politics. Referring to Maneka and Varun Gandhi, he said the (Gandhi) family that irks Modi so much are also a part of the BJP.

"There is a very eminent leader in BJP -- Maneka Gandhi and Varun Gandhi, a young and bright general secretary of the party. For him (Modi), if you leave the Congress, then you are not a part of the family but if you are in the Congress, then you are a part of the (Gandhi) family."

Image: Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde attends a music launch of the film Rajjo hours after Patna's serial blasts on Sunday. Seen in the picture along with the HIM are actors Kangana Ranaut and Atul Tiwari Photographs: Pradeep Bandekar